The book and movie, “The Exorcist,” written by William Peter Blatty, is one of those fictional inspirations. The Ouija board has been the inspiration for quite a bit of fiction. A little table was used to move around the alphabet, numbers, and the words “yes”, “no”, “good morning”, and “good evening” were written on the board. It was18 by 20 inches in size, and users had to keep the board on their lap.

This “craze” was replacing card games at parties.

The earliest recording of a talking board was in 1886 in the New York Daily News, citing Ohio as being the state of origin. Tools like planchettes, spirit writing, trances, seances, and table tipping became the norm in the typical family home. But people wanted more tools to communicate with the other side. This was peak time when seances and public demonstrations became popular. They wanted to talk to mediums to find out what happened to their soldiers. This was because people were desperate for closure with their loved ones’ unresolved deaths.

The movement especially grew in popularity during the Civil War.

One could argue that many ghost hunters today are actually Spiritualists. To put it simply, Spiritualism is the belief that we can communicate with our dearly departed loved ones through mediums. The Spiritualist movement was at its peak in the United States in the 1840s. It seems to always come back to Spiritualism, doesn’t it?

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